alt Hacker NewsShow HN: NES Contra (1987) port (ASM –> C and then C –> WebAssembly)
Based on vermiceli's annotated disassembly of Contra: https://github.com/vermiceli/nes-contra-us. Thanks for the great work.
I ported it in two steps. First to C: the game logic is translated routine by routine from the 6502 assembly, and checked frame by frame against the original in the Mesen emulator. Then the C code to WebAssembly so it runs in the browser.
The cherry on top: online multiplayer, so two players can play co-op over the internet.
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All that work and then somehow transposing the A and B keys at the very end.
One of the things that I'm curious about: How easy / hard is it to use the same NES game with higher resolution / color graphics, and sample-based sound?
Are there any emulators out there that let you swap in higher resolution assets so a game can be freshened without a complete port?
Cool, how did you build the multiplayer mode? And how much AI was used?
Most of the keys aren't working for me in Firefox though :-(
But the Japanese Contra was so much better! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CiXzONyCDW0